{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://boebert.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-lauren-boebert-leads-press-conference-house-gop-leadership-supporting-her", "Rep. Lauren Boebert Leads Press Conference with House GOP Leadership Supporting Her Bill Defunding Disinformation Board", "2022-05-11", "2022", "2022-05", "Republican", "House", "CO", "Lauren Boebert", "B000825", "boebert.house.gov", "boebert", "https://boebert.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Today, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert led a press conference attended by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Whip Steve Scalise, Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan, GOP Conference Vice-Chair Mike Johnson, Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus Scott Perry, and Rep. August Pfluger supporting her bill to terminate the Department of Homeland Security's new Disinformation Governance Board.\n\nCongresswoman Lauren Boebert said at the press conference, \u201cI\u2019m honored to join my colleagues in this important effort to terminate Biden\u2019s Disinformation Governance Board or more accurately known as the Department of Propaganda. I appreciate Leader McCarthy and the House Leadership for standing shoulder to shoulder with us in the effort to preserve free speech\u2026\n\n\u201c\u2026Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake, free speech is under attack in America.\n\n\u201cThe Biden regime continuously uses different methods to try and silence dissenting voices. All in a coordinated effort to keep power, silence the truth, and prevent people who disagree with them from having a voice.\n\n\u201cWe know that the White House colluded with Big Tech to censor the American people.\n\n\u201cWe know that the Department of Justice tried to silence moms and dads by calling them domestic terrorists, just for having a say in their children\u2019s education and attending school board meetings.\n\n\u201cAnd we know that conservative journalists have been targeted by federal agencies for simply reporting the truth. This cannot continue.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re here today to advocate for my bill, the Protecting Free Speech Act, which will terminate the new DHS Disinformation Governance Board.\n\n\u201cNow the DHS is a militant arm of the government. They have enforcement mechanisms for their Disinformation Governance Board.\n\n\u201cWe want to be sure no tax dollars are used for any similar government overreach.\n\n\u201cMisinformation has become a rallying cry for the Left to discredit facts that are inconvenient to their liberal agenda. The Russia collusion hoax, Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop, and the Covid lab leak theory were all labeled \u2018misinformation\u2019 by Big Tech until the truth finally prevailed.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile the Biden regime has been able to put out ridiculous statements that we all know to be lies. This includes false claims like our southern border is secure when it is a known fact that there is a complete invasion at our Southern Border with more than two million illegal aliens coming into our country, some 700,000 got-a-ways coming into our country, and our children dying from the fentanyl that is coming into our country.\n\n\u201cThe left is pushing other false claims that Republicans wanted to defund the police and that Biden\u2019s Build Back Better Act, which the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service estimated would cost $3 trillion over 10 years, somehow costs the American taxpayers $0.\n\n\u201cYou can\u2019t really make this stuff up.\n\n\u201cSo now, because the Biden regime is afraid of Elon Musk and free speech, they want to use Americans\u2019 tax dollars to fund this new board to continue to silence conservatives. Look, I wouldn\u2019t trust Biden and his incompetent misfits to take care of one of my goats, and I certainly don\u2019t trust them to be the arbiters of truth.\n\n\u201cYou know who I trust? I trust the American people. They are more than capable of looking at claims, researching facts, and making informed decisions. Americans don\u2019t need Big Tech fact-checkers or this partisan board silencing free speech like Communist China does.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m calling on Congress to pass my Protecting Free Speech Act, terminate this Orwellian Ministry of Truth, fire Nina Jankowicz, and prevent the Biden Regime from silencing the American people.\u201d\n\nLeader Kevin McCarthy\u2019s prepared remarks for the press conference were as follows: \u201cI want to thank the members standing with me here today, including Representatives Lauren Boebert, Mike Johnson, August Pfluger, and I also want to recognize Scott Franklin for their strong leadership on this issue.\n\n\"President Biden\u2019s \u2018Ministry of Truth' is an un-American abuse of power.\n\n\"It is a scheme conjured up by Washington Democrats to grant themselves the authority to control free speech.\n\n\"They fear Americans having unfettered access to information because it will challenge the power they want to have over people\u2019s lives.\n\n\"And we already know what they will do with that control - they will manipulate the facts and discredit the truth when it is inconvenient to their narrative.\n\n\"We saw it with the Russia collusion hoax. We saw it with Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop. And we saw it throughout Covid when liberals discredited facts that ended up prolonging lockdowns and school closures.\n\n\"If there is any doubt the Biden administration intends to exploit this office to manipulate information, look no further than the person they have hand-selected to head this office.\n\n\"Nina Jankowicz championed government lockdowns, going as far as saying, 'force away' and 'lock us down.'\n\n\"She elevated the now-debunked Steele Dossier.\n\n\"And she actively worked to spread misinformation that has now been proven false.\n\n\"This person has no business serving in government, much less given a role to monitor information.\n\n\"President Biden\u2019s 'disinformation governance board' must be completely dismantled.\n\n\"House Republicans are working together to ensure it ceases to exist and that taxpayer dollars never go to fund this Orwellian ploy.\n\n\"We will continue to stand up to preserve Americans\u2019 rights.\"\n\nHouse Republican Whip Steve Scalise said, \"I want to thank Congresswoman Boebert and all my other colleagues here who are standing up against this attempt to undermine free speech. And we've seen it over and over again from [President] Biden. And you just think about this idea of 'Ministry of Disinformation' coming from the very same people who called parents who wanted to play a role in their kids' education 'domestic terrorists.'\n\n\u201cWhat is it that [President] Biden has against people expressing their views if it goes against his far-left Soviet-style, radical ideology? That's really what this is about. It's been about government control from the beginning. They want to control what people say, they want to control what people think, [and] they want to control the people's ability to enjoy their own freedoms.\n\n\u201cYou saw it over and over again during COVID. Schools should have been [opened earlier], and the science, by the way, was very clear on that. And yet some of the same people that would be in charge of the 'Ministry of Disinformation,' were some of the people trying to keep schools shut down when the data early [on] said it's harming kids. It's harming them emotionally, mentally, the learning that they lost \u2013 millions of kids that will never catch up \u2013 because they kept schools shut down.\n\n\u201cAnd by the way, it was the Biden Administration who changed the science because the union bosses went to him and said they didn't like the CDC guidance that was about to come out. And they were actually able to get the CDC to change the science to conform to what the union bosses [wanted], so they [could] shut down schools easier.\n\n\u201cOver and over again, my colleague, [Judiciary Committee Ranking Member] Jordan, is going to be talking in a moment as well. We've been calling for a hearing on the origins of COVID for over a year, and [President] Biden, [Speaker] Pelosi, [and] all the Soviet-style leaders here in Washington will not let that debate go forward. But again, if we're talking about a 'Ministry of Disinformation,' do you know it was people in the Biden Administration that were saying if you suggested that COVID started in the lab in Wuhan, that you were promoting a conspiracy theory? People in the CDC actually said that.\n\n\u201cAnd now, when you talk to most scientists who have looked at the genetic structure of COVID-19, they all say it's highly unlikely that it was naturally created from a bat to an animal to a human. It was probably genetically manipulated and more than likely in that lab in Wuhan. So, sure enough, more facts are coming out that it very well started in the lab in Wuhan. They still won't hold a hearing on this. By the way, we will when we're in the majority. We'll get to the facts, but some of these very same people involved in this 'Ministry of Disinformation' were calling it a conspiracy theory to suggest that COVID-19 started in the Wuhan lab, when in fact, now more and more science shows it probably did.\n\n\u201cSo, again, the very people that are talking about being involved in a 'Ministry of Disinformation' are themselves the purveyors of disinformation. So, I guess if you need to find somebody who's an expert in spreading disinformation, they found the right person because [Nina Jankowicz] has been a purveyor of disinformation over and over and over again. But that's not what the American people believe in.\n\n\u201cThe American people believe in free speech, the ability to go out and talk about your ideas, talk about your beliefs, defend them, and let the facts ultimately come out. But if [Democrats] don't like the facts, they want to shut down speech. And that's not only unconstitutional, it's un-American, and we need to defund it. We're going to continue fighting to get this bill brought up. And I congratulate again, [Congresswoman] Boebert, and all of my colleagues who are going to stand up for free speech and against disinformation from the Biden Administration.\u201d\n\nAdditional Background\n\nOn May 3, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert led 61 of her colleagues in introducing the Protecting Free Speech Act to terminate the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Disinformation Governance Board, also known as the \u201cMinistry of Truth\u201d, and prohibit any federal funds from being used to establish or carry out the activities of any other entity that is substantially similar.\n\nTo date, 70 Members of Congress have cosponsored Congresswoman Boebert\u2019s Protecting Free Speech Act including: Minority Whip Steve Scalise, Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, RSC Chairman Jim Banks, Rick W. Allen, Brian Babin, Jack Bergman, Andy Biggs, Dan Bishop, Mo Brooks, Ken Buck, Ted Budd, Kat Cammack, Madison Cawthorn, Michael Cloud, Warren Davidson, Jeff Duncan, Byron Donalds, Tom Emmer, Michelle Fischbach, Chuck Fleischmann, Scott Franklin, Matt Gaetz, Bob Gibbs, Louie Gohmert, Lance Gooden, Paul Gosar, Diana Harshbarger, Vicky Hartzler, Kevin Hern, Jody Hice, Clay Higgins, Bill Huzienga, Darrell Issa, Chris Jacobs, Mike Johnson, Jim Jordan, Mike Kelly, Doug Lamborn, Debbie Lesko, Billy Long, Tracy Mann, Thomas Massie, Lisa McClain, David McKinley, Daniel Meuser, Carol D. Miller, Mary Miller, John Moolenaar, Alex Mooney, Barry Moore, Greg Murphy, Troy Nehls, Ralph Norman, Jay Obernolte, August Pfluger, Bill Posey, Guy Reschenthaler, Chip Roy, Mar\u00eda Elvira Salazar, Mike Simpson, Jason Smith, Victoria Spartz, Greg Steube, Chris Stewart, Van Taylor, Tom Tiffany, Jeff Van Drew, Jackie Walorski, and Lee Zeldin\n\nOrganizations supporting Congresswoman Boebert\u2019s bill include: the American Conservative Union, Americans for Limited Government, Citizens for Renewing America, Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, Heritage Action, and the Tea Party Patriots Action.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T02:29:07Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://boebert.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-lauren-boebert-leads-press-conference-house-gop-leadership-supporting-her"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9274153746664524, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}